Kent hospital will remain in special measures

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The Health Secretary has said there are "far too many" failing care homes.

Jeremy Hunt said that he would not want his mother, father or grandparents to live in a number of care facilities in England as he announced new measures to tackle failing care homes.

Jeremy Hunt, Health Secretary

There are many excellent home care providers and many outstanding care homes in this country but there are still too many where I would personally not want my mother or my father or grandparents to live in.

The public have been really shocked by stories of abuse and neglect and we need to give the public confidence that when these things happen they will be spotted quickly and acted on.

– Jeremy Hunt, Health Secretary.

Mr Gove said Ofsted-style ratings would be given to care homes and care services and those that are labelled 'inadequate' could be put into special measures or even shut down.

Medway NHS Foundation Trust has given its reaction to the announcement that it is to remain in special measures

Steve Hams, Chief Nurse, said: “Since the Keogh review last year, significant progress has and is being made in a number of areas to improve patient safety and experience.

"Forty-one of the 50 improvement actions in the Trust’s Keogh plan have been delivered, in addition we have 160 more nurses caring for our patients than we did 12 months ago, however there is still more to be done."